Flooding fears hit South Yorkshire village five years on

DRAINAGE experts have been pumping away standing water to protect a South Yorkshire village devastated by floods five years ago.

Emergency council workers were at Catcliffe Flash at first light yesterday, with pumping equipment to remove huge swathes of water from saturated land.

The water was pumped into the River Rother running through Catcliffe after Environment Agency monitoring systems notified Rotherham Council that river levels were falling and there was enough capacity to take the excess water.

A weekend of torrential downpours and rain all night Sunday and Monday led to fears homes were at risk of flooding again – five years after many were destroyed when the river burst its banks and the Flash overflowed.

Some families were left homeless for months and forced to live in caravans.

There was so much devastation Prince Charles visited to meet residents whose homes were under water and thanked emergency workers for their efforts.

A Rotherham Council spokesman said: “The Environment Agency has monitoring systems in place which alert us to areas which need attention and with notification that river levels were moving down we began pumping the water away.”

Roads across South Yorkshire were closed off and under water yesterday because of widespread flooding.

The B6094 Carr Lane, Conisbrough, was closed between the B6376 Edlington Lane junction with Common Lane; Thorpe Bank in Barnby Dun was closed between Fordstead Lane and Marsh Road, and Scotch Spring Lane, Stainton, was closed between A631 Tickhill Road and Old Scotch Spring Lane.

Parts of the Wednesdayite car park at Hillsborough were also under water last night, meaning only permit holders were allowed in.